Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• No, really - a proper update on the update
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving

No, really - a proper update on the update

OK, so you probably noticed that this is being written at the end of the week instead of the start, but (for a change) there's a good reason: there's been a whole chunk of stuff sorted out for the Codex update. Don't get too excited - you can't see it yet, as it's going to be included in the next version of Codex. So, what, that's going to be in a few months or something? Well, actually, it should be a lot sooner than that... I'll admit that I'm going to miss the target date that I was aiming for, but only by a (very) small amount. More in the next newsletter...

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - Sarah - 3.9 (10 games)
2nd - DOM - 4.88 (76 games)
3rd - sharon - 5.1 (10 games)
4th - bin1 - 5.22 (27 games)
5th - Bunnery - 5.33 (18 games)
6th - Breadmower - 5.4 (5 games)
xx - Mr.Puzzlewit- 6.5 (4 games)
7th - Smonkey - 6.71 (7 games)

Total games played: 165

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 34 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to sharon, who sent 41 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 45 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Sarah, whose codes took an average of 6 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 4.09 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to bin1, who completed a game in 6 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 23:47:16 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Mr.Puzzlewit, who decreased their average by 1.08
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to sharon, whose average increased by 0.64
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Smonkey, who took an average of 6.71 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to Sarah, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 3.9 over 10 games

168 games by 8 players, that's not too bad. Sarah was at the top of the list for the first time in a while, finishing with a rather impressive score of 3.9 over 10 games. Nice work - have a Bletchley. What's that? You want more? Well... maybe an Enigma as well (for setting codes that took an average of 6 guesses to break).

Sharon might have sent the most games this week (41, winning Open Relay), but it looks as if they were all pretty easy, as she won the Plaintext award (they took an average of 4.38 guesses to find). She also disimproved the most (by 0.64), winning Downgrade. Improving the most was Mr.Puzzlewit, who won Upgrade for his improvement of 1.08.

DOM picked up 3 awards this week: Secret Admirers and Turing (received 34 games and played 48 solo games), along with Deep Thought (took 1 day 23:47:16 to complete a single game). This week's fastest game was played by Bin1 in a speedy 6 seconds (winning Quick Thinking), whilst this week's Brute Force award was won by Smonkey for her final score of 6.71 over 7 games.

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• GMT +144
  
• Item Two
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving

GMT +144

Yeah, so normal service wasn't quite resumed on Sunday. Let's call it jetlag, and say that I'm in the new timezone of GMT +144.

The more interesting news is that something new is coming (relatively) soon(-ish). No sneak previews yet, but it's wider and more colourful... at the moment, anyway - you know how I'm bad for totally changing my mind part way through things. Maybe some more details in the next newsletter (aka tomorrow), along with a bit of a request for comments (if anyone wants to contribute some thoughts).

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - sharon - 4.46 (26 games)
2nd - Sarah - 4.67 (18 games)
3rd - Bunnery - 5 (9 games)
xx - bin1 - 5 (6 games)
4th - Mr.Puzzlewit - 5.08 (12 games)
5th - DOM - 5.19 (200 games)

Total games played: 280

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 38 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to sharon, who sent 42 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 162 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Sarah, whose codes took an average of 5.17 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 4.3 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to DOM, who completed a game in 17 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 14:18:24 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to sharon, who decreased their average by 1.14
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Mr.Puzzlewit, whose average increased by 0.83
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to DOM, who took an average of 5.19 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to sharon, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.46 over 26 games

Six players again this week, clocking up a total of 280 games. 200 of those were down to DOM, who finished at the bottom of the table with an average of 5.19, winning the Brute Force award. Of course, with playing 200 games, you know that there's going to be a Turing award (played 163 solo games) and probably a Secret Admirers award (received 38 challenges). He also managed to grab a Quick Thinking award (finished a game in 17 seconds) and a matching Deep Thought award (took 14:18:24 to complete one game), along with an Optimal Algorithm award (found a code on the first guess).

Mr.Puzzlewit disimproved the most this week - by 0.83 in total, winning the Downgrade award. Sharon won its counterpart - Upgrade - for improving by 1.14. That improvement also pushed her to the top of the board, finishing with a score of 4.46 over 26 games. Here's a Bletchley for that, with a Plaintext to go with it (set codes that took an average of 4.3 guesses to find). Nice work :-)

Bin1 managed to squeeze in a few quick games - 6 in total - but that wasn't enough to stay on the board - he was this week's frozen out player. Work less, play more - that's the solution. Sarah won the final award of the week - Enigma, for setting codes that took an average of 5.17 guesses to find. She also gets a bonus award for giving out a big "woo yay" on her profile, but then gets the bonus taken away for the fact that the "woo yay" is so big that it's four times the width of the rest of the site ;-) I'll put that on the fix list for CDX3.

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• Late, but not forgotten
  
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving

Late, but not forgotten

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - bin1 - 4.2 (5 games)
2nd - Mr.Puzzlewit - 4.25 (4 games)
3rd - Bunnery - 4.63 (8 games)
4th - DOM - 5.52 (126 games)
5th - sharon - 5.6 (70 games)
xx - Smonkey - 8.67 (3 games)

Total games played: 223

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 28 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to sharon, who sent 72 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 85 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Sarah, whose codes took an average of 6.83 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 5.15 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to Mr.Puzzlewit, who completed a game in 8 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to Mr.Puzzlewit, who took 1 day 22:55:04 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Bunnery, who decreased their average by 0.71
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to DOM, whose average increased by 0.88
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to sharon, who took an average of 5.6 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to bin1, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.2 over 5 games

Hey, more players and more games: 6 and 223, to be precise. Bin1 finished at the top of the pile with an average of 4.2 over 5 games - quite a triumphant return after his absence. Nice work - celebrate with a Bletchley award.

Trailing by just 0.05 was Mr.Puzzlewit, who though deprived of a Bletchley, still won a matching pair of awards: Quick Thinking (completed a game in 8 seconds) and Deep Thought (took 1 day 22:55:04 to complete a game). Bunnery managed to improve the most (by 0.71), winning Upgrade. DOM played the most games (126 in total), and as you'd expect, won the Turing award (86 solo games) and Secret Admirers award (28 games received). The bad news is that he disimproved the most (by 0.88).

Sarah managed to sneak in without playing any games and win the Enigma award (set codes that took 6.83 guesses to find on average). Its counterpart - Plaintext - was won by Sharon (set codes that took 5.15 guesses to find on average), along with this week's Brute Force award (final average of 5.6 over 70 games), which she snatched from Smonkey (who was this week's frozen out player).

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• Temporal schism?
  
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving

Temporal schism?

Now, whilst it seems as if this newsletter is, uhh, a few days late, there's actually a really simple explanation: the missing time is due to the first tests of the Large Hadron Collider. All the scientists at CERN said that it was perfectly safe (including a rather entertaining quotation from Brian Cox), but there you go - some kind of temporal schism. Fortunately, much like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, everything's back to normal now.

For those of you worried about the fact that this happened on what appears to be a newsletter milestone (ie #100), what you need to bear in mind is that because 4BP is weekly, then the real milestone will be #104, as that'll be two years. Hang on, that's in three weeks - I'd better get a move on.

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - DOM - 4.5 (20 games)
2nd - sharon - 4.9 (21 games)
xx - NiconRossi - 5.15 (13 games)
3rd - Bunnery - 5.33 (18 games)

Total games played: 80

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to NiconRossi, who was challenged 20 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to DOM, who sent 62 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to Bunnery, who played solo 6 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Sarah, whose codes took an average of 5.71 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 4.2 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to NiconRossi, who completed a game in 4 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 23:59:52 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to DOM, who decreased their average by 0.78
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to sharon, whose average increased by 0.5
• An Optimal Algorithm award (for finding a code with one guess) is given to NiconRossi
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Bunnery, who took an average of 5.33 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to DOM, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.5 over 20 games

It was a quiet week (only 80 games played), but NiconRossi burst back onto the scene with a score of 5.15, but also an Optimal Algorithm award (found a code in one guess), a Quick Thinking award (finished a game in 4 seconds) and a Secret Admirers award (received 20 games). Only problem was that he'd played the fewest games, so he was frozen out. Still, could be worse - at least he didn't miss out on a Bletchley because of that: this week's Bletchley award went to DOM for his final score of 4.5 over 20 games - nice work, DOM. In addition, he also picked up the Open Relay award (sent 62 games), the Deep Thought award (took 1 day 23:59:52 to complete one game) and the Upgrade award (improved by 0.78).

Sharon was only just behind DOM on the leaderboard, but had consolation prizes of the Plaintext award (set codes that took an average of 4.2 guesses to find) and the Downgrade award (disimproved by 0.5). Sarah was at the opposite end of things difficulty-wise, winning the Enigma award (set codes that took an average of 5.71 guesses to find. Finally Bunnery won the Turing award (played 4 solo games), but also finished with the highest average (5.33), winning Brute Force.

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• Word of the week: Hoo-ha
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving

Word of the week: Hoo-ha

I was originally going to use this space to reel off a list of everything that's happened over the last 96 hours to prevent me from doing any req.co.uk and Codex updates (and any of the other things I've got on my massive to-do list), but it'd bore you and get me all worked up again. I'll just tell you the entertaining bit, which is that I've discovered that long hair and soldering irons don't mix. Well, they do mix quite well, but the smell of burning hair is something that I'd rather avoid.

I'm even going to go out on a limb here, and tell you that I'm not going to get chance to do anything over the coming week, as I'm commuting all week, and the time that's left over from that is going to be spent on the other (proper work) project that all of this week's hoo-ha has put me behind on. 

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - sharon - 4.4 (30 games)
2nd - DOM - 5.28 (128 games)
xx - Bunnery - 5.54 (28 games)

Total games played: 192

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 68 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to sharon, who sent 62 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 60 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Sarah, whose codes took an average of 5.35 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to DOM, whose codes took only 4.25 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to DOM, who completed a game in 14 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 23:39:45 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to sharon, who decreased their average by 0.7
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Bunnery, whose average increased by 0.39
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Bunnery, who took an average of 5.54 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to sharon, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.4 over 30 games

Hmmm, now last week Bin1 briefly resurfaced, and pointed out that I'm losing the umph in my blog writing, and to be fair, he does seem to have a point. "No problem", I thought, "I'll just write something really interesting this week to make up for it". Ah, except the problem is that this week we only have 3 players, 1 frozen, and 192 games played. Not much to work with, I'm afraid, so I'll have to keep this one a bit on the factual side again.

Sharon was this week's player with the lowest final average - that'd be 4.4 over a total of 30 games. Rather a nice score, winning her this week's Bletchley: nice work, Sharon. In addition, Sharon also sent the most games this week (62, winning Open Relay) and improved the most (by 0.7, winning Upgrade). DOM was our second (and lowest non-frozen) placed player, with a final average of 5.28 over 128 games. Not only does he win this week's Brute Force award, but he also received the most games (68, winning Secret Admirers), played the most solo games (60, winning Turing), set the easiest codes (needing an average of 4.25 guesses to find, winning Plaintext), and completed both the fastest and slowest games (taking 14 seconds to win Quick Thinking and 1 day 23:39:45 to win Deep Thought).

Sarah set the hardest codes (taking 5.35 guesses to find on average, winning Enigma), whilst Bunnery disimproved the most (by 0.39, winning Downgrade), but missed out on the Brute Force award due to being frozen out.

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• I bought some really nice trousers in Camden...
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving

I bought some really nice trousers in Camden...

...they is well hardcore with pockets and bits. Bonus marks if you recognise the quotation. Anyway, due in part to these trousers, I didn't manage to get anything done this week. No, wait, that doesn't make sense. I was doing a networking job this week, and the trousers are fancy ones with kneepads for if you're kneeling down. Basically, I had a lot of "real work" to do, so the site took a back seat. Don't worry - I've scheduled some time over the coming days to make up for it.

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - DOM - 4.99 (90 games)
2nd - sharon - 5.1 (49 games)
3rd - Sarah - 5.14 (29 games)
4th - Bunnery - 5.14 (21 games)
xx - Mr.Puzzlewit - 6.0 (1 game)

Total games played: 198

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to sharon, who was challenged 38 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to DOM, who sent 45 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 72 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to DOM, whose codes took an average of 5 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 4.84 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to sharon, who completed a game in 12 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to Bunnery, who took 1 day 12:57:02 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Bunnery, who decreased their average by 0.25
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Sarah, whose average increased by 0.17
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Bunnery, who took an average of 5.14 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to DOM, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.99 over 90 games

Bit of a busier week this time, with 198 games played in total. DOM stormed to the top of the board, playing 90 games and finishing with an average of 4.99 - just 0.11 ahead of Sharon (who in turn was just 0.04 ahead of Bunnery and Sarah). Hardly the biggest lead, but enough to win a Bletchley - nice work, DOM. In addition, he's also the recipient of this week's Open Relay and Turing awards for sending 45 games and playing 73 solo games.

Sharon received the most games this week (38) winning Secret Admirers, set the hardest codes (average of 5.3 guesses to find) winning Enigma, and completed a game in 12 seconds to win Quick Thinking. Sarah disimproved the most (by 0.17) to win Downgrade, whilst Bunnery improved by 0.25 to win Upgrade. Not only that, but she also set the easiest codes (4.85 guesses to find on average) winning Plaintext, won Deep Thought (took 1 day 12:57:02 to complete a single game), and had the highest (non-frozen) score: 5.14 over 21 games, winning Brute Force.

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• Stuff's happened (but you still can't see it)
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving

Stuff's happened (but you still can't see it)

OK, slightly shocking news: amidst working on another web project (nothing to do with this), I managed to spend a little time working on the req.co.uk redesign, and it's come on quite a bit from where it was. As ever, it's been one of those weeks where I decided to throw away everything that I'd previously done and start again (oddly enough, the same thing happened with the other project). Anyway, it was worth it, and it's got me back into the swing of things.

More updates next week (and possibly a sneak preview or something if I get time).

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - Sarah - 4.66 (29 games)
2nd - DOM - 4.9 (29 games)
3rd - sharon - 5.08 (24 games)
xx - Bunnery - 5.39 (18 games)

Total games played: 102

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 20 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to Sarah, who sent 33 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to sharon, who played solo 13 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Bunnery, whose codes took an average of 5.46 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to Smonkey, whose codes took only 4.33 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to Sarah, who completed a game in 10 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to sharon, who took 1 day 23:59:26 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to sharon, who decreased their average by 0.01
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Bunnery, whose average increased by 0.46
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Bunnery, who took an average of 5.39 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to Sarah, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.66 over 29 games

Only four players this week (my excuse is that I was sat in front of a copy of Dreamweaver all week, what's yours? :-) ). For a change, however, it wasn't all the usual suspects from recent weeks: no Breadmower and no Smonkey, but we did see the return of Sarah for the first time in, uhh, a while. Not only that, but she jumped straight to the top of the board with her final average of 4.66 over 29 games. Here, have a Bletchley as a welcome back gift of sorts. Not good enough? OK, what about an Open Relay award (for sending 33 games) and a Quick Thinking award (for finishing a game in 9 seconds) as well. Nice work, Sarah.

DOM might have been relegated to second place, but he did receive the most games - 20 in total - winning him the Secret Admirers award. Sharon played the most solo games (14) winning Turing, along with Deep Thought (took 1 day 23:59:26 to complete one game), Upgrade (improved by 0.01) and Brute Force (highest non-frozen average of 5.08 over 24 games). Smonkey set the easiest codes (taking an average of 4.33 to find), winning the Plaintext award. Finally, Bunnery won Enigma (for setting codes that took an average of 5.46 guesses to find) and Downgrade (disimproved by 0.46).

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• Still looking the same
  
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving

Still looking the same

Evening, all. As you've probably noticed, there's not been any sudden redesigns of the site this week. I've got some plans on paper and on the whiteboard, but need more time to translate them to "actual web stuff" (technical term). The good news is that I'm not working (well, proper work) next week (or this week, if you start the week on Sunday), so I should have a little time to finish the current design stuff off.

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - DOM - 4.5 (6 games)
xx - Breadmower - 4.8 (5 games)
2nd - Bunnery - 4.93 (15 games)
3rd - sharon - 5.1 (41 games)
4th - Smonkey - 7.46 (26 games)

Total games played: 98

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to doktorfausto, who was challenged 7 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to Bunnery, who sent 13 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to sharon, who played solo 41 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to sharon, whose codes took an average of 5 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to DOM, whose codes took only 4.33 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to sharon, who completed a game in 7 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 23:59:34 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to DOM, who decreased their average by 0.9
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to sharon, whose average increased by -0.09
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Smonkey, who took an average of 7.46 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to DOM, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.5 over 6 games

Almost a photo finish this week, with three players finishing with a sub-five average. DOM was slightly ahead, though - his final average of 4.5 over 6 games edging him ahead of the frozen out Breadmower (with 4.8 over 5 games). Nice work, DOM - have a Bletchley. It looks as if DOM improved the most on his way to the top (by 0.9), winning the Upgrade award, and he also picked up the Plaintext (set codes that took an average of 4.33 guesses to find) and Deep Thought (took a leisurely 1 day 23:59:34 to complete one game) awards

Sharon partially mirrored him this week, winning the Downgrade award (disimproved by 0.09), Quick Thinking award (completed a game in 7 seconds) and Enigma award (set codes that took an average of 5 guesses to find). She didn't win Brute Force (for that perfect mirrored effect) - that went to Smonkey (7.46 over 26 games) - but did win the Turing award (for playing 41 solo games). The final two awards - Open Relay and Secret Admirers - went to Bunnery (13 games sent) and doktorfausto (7 games received) respectively.

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• Some small progress
  
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving
  
  

I've managed to do a little work on the back end of the site, though still nothing that you'll notice for a while. The good news is that I've got a week off next week, so whilst I've got some other bits and pieces to do, I'm going to try to spend a day doing some design work for the site. See, from my point of view, writing the code for the backend of all this is the easy bit - it's the design that takes the time. Hopefully, if I can get some of that done, I'll be able to start implementing some of this invisible stuff that you haven't seen yet.

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - sharon - 5.19 (47 games)
2nd - DOM - 5.4 (52 games)
3rd - Bunnery - 6.56 (9 games)
xx - Smonkey - 8.83 (6 games)

Total games played: 118

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to punkxrocker, who was challenged 6 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to sharon, who sent 10 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to DOM, who played solo 51 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Bunnery, whose codes took an average of 7 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to DOM, whose codes took only 4.5 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to DOM, who completed a game in 32 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 23:44:47 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Smonkey, who decreased their average by 0.24
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Bunnery, whose average increased by 0.35
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Bunnery, who took an average of 6.56 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to sharon, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 5.19 over 47 games

Quite a few more games played than last week - ah, that must mean that DOM's back, presumably with a Turing award... yep, there he is: 51 solo games played for the Turing award, a game finished in 32 seconds for the Quick Thinking award, 1 day 23:44:47 spent pondering a game for the Deep Thought award, and a few easy codes set (taking 4.5 guesses to find on average), winning the Plaintext award. No Bletchley for DOM this week, though - that went to Sharon, who finished with an average of 5.19 over 47 games, along with an Open Relay award for sending 10 games. Nice work, Sharon.

Receiving the most games (6) this week was punkxrocker, who's relatively new, but has yet to play any games. The trickiest codes (taking 7 guesses on average to find) were set by Bunnery, winning Enigma - she also disimproved the most (by 0.35) to win Downgrade, and was at the bottom of the leaderboard (average of 6.56 over 9 games), snatching the Brute Force award from Smonkey, who was frozen out. Smonkey did, however, improve the most (by 0.24), winning Upgrade.

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• Yes, I feel bad
  
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving
  
  

Unfortunately nothing interesting to report here, I'm afraid. I was away in London for all of last week, surfing around on the Tube. Well, that and doing some work. Anyway, it meant that I didn't have any opportunities for Codex (or req.co.uk) work, so there's been no updates, sorry. Just so you know, I do feel bad about just fobbing you off with non-updates every week, and am really going to try to get at least something done each week from now on. I'll let you know how that works out next Sunday.

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - Bunnery - 5.27 (11 games)
xx - Sarah - 6 (1 game)
2nd - Smonkey - 7.56 (9 games)

Total games played: 22

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to laura, who was challenged 8 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to Bunnery, who sent 14 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to Smonkey, who played solo 9 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to sharon, whose codes took an average of 6 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to DOM, whose codes took only 5.11 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to Bunnery, who completed a game in 29 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to Bunnery, who took 00:16:02 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to Bunnery, who decreased their average by 0.45
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Smonkey, whose average increased by 0.72
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Smonkey, who took an average of 7.56 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to Bunnery, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 5.27 over 11 games

Ah, well. What can I say? 22 games played, which is probably a record low, but then I can't really complain, as I didn't play any either. Hello, Pot? I've got Kettle on line two. I won't try to string it out - I'll just summarise: Bunnery came first (5.27 over 11 games), Smonkey came last (7.56 over 9 games), and Sarah was frozen out in the middle (6 over 1 game). Bunnery, nice work - have a Bletchley. In fact, have an Open Relay (sent 14 games), Quick Thinking (finished a game in 29 seconds), Deep Thought (took 16 minutes 2 seconds to complete a game), and Upgrade (improved by 0.45). Smonkey, I'm afraid that you'll have to make do with the Turing award (played 9 solo games), Downgrade (disimproved by 0.72) and Brute Force award.

Three other players won awards, too. That'll be: Laura with Secret Admirers (received 8 games), Sharon with Enigma (set codes that took 6 guesses to find on average), and DOM with Plaintext (codes took 5.11 guesses to find on average).

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk